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filbert
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filbert
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PostSun Jun 26, 2022 5:14 pm 
These peaks have seemed to call to me - so many times while in the surrounding country. Despite the difficulties of the approach routes I decided to answer the call. Last year I took a look at the area where b00 found a good crossing of the Pratt. All I found was dense brush - I never even got to the bank of the river, let alone across. So having been to Revolution (5454'), I thought that approach worth a try despite its length and added vertical. Traveling this time of year would hopefully add enough snow to keep the brush to moderate proportions, but not so much or so unconsolidated to make travel too slow. And to me, what would the point be if there were no views? With the weather finally having a sunny break from the low clouds it was time to try it. I had considered doing it as a two-day trip, but with the day length thought there was a chance even I might manage it in one very long day. I'd been to Revolution earlier this spring. With much more snow and others in the party, it alone was a pretty long day. With most of the snow melted below the last spur to Thompson Point, the first part went pretty fast. The Thompson Point trail starting from the intersection is frequently brushy and in one memorable section pretty marshy. Rather than attempt the broken ridge I dropped via an old spur road to about 4200' until nearly due south of Revolution, then ascend to its east ridge. Here's a view looking down that spur toward Revolution
Contouring to Revolution
Contouring to Revolution
There's an unholy mix of snow and brush and downed trees and rock bands that make this traverse fairly time-consuming. The views (when not treed-in) are great:
Views to south from traverse to Revolution (yep, that little bump is Adams)
Views to south from traverse to Revolution (yep, that little bump is Adams)
The ascent mostly in snow went fairly nicely, the biggest problem soon to come is postholing, which was fairly infrequent on this trip. Once over the ridge and starting to drop down the way Russian Butte comes into view:
Russian Butte viewed from the south
Russian Butte viewed from the south
It's about 2 miles of threading mostly snow-covered slopes. Brush is less common, but was occasionally impossible to avoid. Once east of the Butte, the ridge that you ascend is fairly obvious and is straightforward. Contouring initially northward around the base of a cliffy rock band needed to be done below where I was expecting it, but soon the rising westward snow field was found. This is where I found previous trip descriptions lacking. At least on this day, the snow field is fairly broad, trifurcating into separate fingers. Which to take? Naturally, I took the most direct, obvious, easy, and ultimately wrong one. It wasn't a good sign that it there was a nice view of clear blue sky as I approached its end. I managed to get over a modest sized moat just to get a better view and see which way I should try next. Here's something of the view from there:
In the Butte Midst
In the Butte Midst
There's a (smallish) summit on the right, but seemingly like the Real One somewhere on the left. So I did the tedious traverse over to the left and managed to get up a brushy slope to the left-most snow finger. Ascending that to the highest snowy part, then ascending a short not-too-difficult heather patch got onto some nice rock. There are 2 or 3 false mini-summits but they are fairly short and easy. Hey! There's the summit register, and there's no more 'up'! And the views are wonderful. Here's looking back toward Revolution (yeah, on the left):
Reward!
Reward!
There hadn't been any summit register entries since last September. This all took a ridiculous time getting to this point: 9 hours from the TH. It took nearly as long getting back (8.5) as I was getting pretty tired, and the major flaw of this route - having to gain ~1500' on the way back - didn't make it easier. Thanks to an early start (5:30am) in my 18 hour trip I didn't need my headlight until the Granite Lakes trail spur. Some of you could be faster, but this geezer probably couldn't do this difficult a trip, about 17.5 miles, and a total of ~7350' of elevation gain appreciably faster, even without the bleeping rope which in today's conditions was completely unnecessary. Thankfully the views were great, and today I can rest and recover. A view of the worst of my route:

With every passing hour our solar system comes forty-three thousand miles closer to globular cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules, and still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no such thing as progress.

thunderhead, MangyMarmot, JimK, zimmertr, Fedor, Gimpilator, Now I Fly, ALW Hiker, RichP, Bramble_Scramble, LukeHelgeson, reststep, mosey  ngie
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Gimpilator
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Gimpilator
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PostWed Jun 29, 2022 8:32 pm 
I gotta say congratulations to anyone who does this tough little peak, especially the long way, especially in a single day.

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Mike Collins
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PostThu Jun 30, 2022 3:52 pm 
Congratulations on this challenging peak. My ascent was via Gifford Creek and the onto a Class 3-4 slope east to connect with the southern ridge at ~4,200 ft. It was 5 hr 45 min to summit and a 4 hr descent. But our descent route was via the Pratt to a ford of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie.

ngie
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ngie
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ngie
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PostSun Jul 03, 2022 2:04 pm 
Quote:
Congratulations on this challenging peak. My ascent was via Gifford Creek and the onto a Class 3-4 slope east to connect with the southern ridge at ~4,200 ft. It was 5 hr 45 min to summit and a 4 hr descent. But our descent route was via the Pratt to a ford of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie.
Interesting! I had been considering the Gifford Creek path in the spring, but given the lack of route info, I decided it wasn't a terribly great idea to attempt with zero beta. I'll see if I can poke around the site looking for the info.

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ngie
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ngie
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PostSun Jul 03, 2022 2:05 pm 
Well done filbert! That's quite the haul!! Is the red track on your map the ascent or descent route (my guess is ascent based on the description, but just want to be sure..)?

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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks



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puzzlr
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PostMon Jul 04, 2022 1:21 pm 
Way to go! It's a big effort to do this in a day and your times are in line with others who have done that route in one push. I agree that it's a little confusing to pick the best route up that last slope to the ridge line -- I did the same thing you did when we came up from the Pratt and ended up at that pass between the main and north peak and then had to traverse south. That's a pretty spectacular place, though.
View down into the spectacluarly rugged gully betwee the main and north peak
View down into the spectacluarly rugged gully betwee the main and north peak
Is the register still a pelican case inside an ammo box? I added the pelican case in October 2020 when we did it from the Pratt. [Edit to add photo of summit register containers]
Oct 2020 summit register
Oct 2020 summit register

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filbert
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filbert
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PostMon Jul 04, 2022 7:18 pm 
Thanks ngie. The red track shows my returning route.

With every passing hour our solar system comes forty-three thousand miles closer to globular cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules, and still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no such thing as progress.

ngie
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filbert
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filbert
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PostMon Jul 04, 2022 7:24 pm 
puzzlr- Not sure what a 'pelican' case it - there was a plastic clamshell case holding 2 small bound notepads and some writing instruments within the ammo box. It's got to be one of the most pristine summit logs ever -- nice, neat, clean and dry.

With every passing hour our solar system comes forty-three thousand miles closer to globular cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules, and still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no such thing as progress.
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Zloi
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Zloi
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PostTue Jul 05, 2022 8:48 pm 
Big congratulations! This has to be one of the toughest summits in our area to get. No easy way up or down. I took a look at that ridge one time from Thompson Pt. and thought, "No way for this hombre" to ever notch Russian Butte--it was just a speck in the distance! There used to be a little cabin at road's end but I just read puzzlr's report on what happened to that cabin in 2018. Too bad about its fate. It was a cute, solid-looking place, if a bit quixotic as a retreat.

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Scrambler
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PostWed Jul 06, 2022 9:02 am 
Your excellent trip report brought back a lot of fond memories of my visit to the Russian Buttes. I was with a small group of Seattle Mountaineers on an experience climb. We made the climb on May 15, 1971. The trail head at that time was from near Granite Lakes. The road was passable by vehicle at that time. We did a full traverse of both summits by rappelling from the South Summit about 200 feet and continuing on to the North Summit. Our route followed closely the route you have described and the long traverse was difficult with soft snow, brush, melt holes, and all of the difficulties of cross-country travel. Our time, considering the shorter travel from trail head was 14 1/2 hours round trip with the ascent consuming 9 1/2 hours. Weather was generally blustery and cold with some cloud breaks but lots of wind. I reported that we found some debris on the summit from a previous survey party and left a small glass bottle as a summit register. Our climbing leader was Gene Mickle who was a good friend and strong climber. Great times with Great Friends!!

Zloi
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Fedor
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Fedor
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PostFri Jul 08, 2022 5:09 pm 
ngie wrote:
Quote:
Congratulations on this challenging peak. My ascent was via Gifford Creek and the onto a Class 3-4 slope east to connect with the southern ridge at ~4,200 ft. It was 5 hr 45 min to summit and a 4 hr descent. But our descent route was via the Pratt to a ford of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie.
Interesting! I had been considering the Gifford Creek path in the spring, but given the lack of route info, I decided it wasn't a terribly great idea to attempt with zero beta.
I found this quote on Peakbagger: Mike Collins said, "I have climbed Russian Butte but never wrote it up for internet access. My route can only be done in the dryness of August as the approach involves climbing right up a pour off of Gifford Creek. My route involved crossing private land to access Gifford Creek. One of the must-see sights is the abandoned meth lab along the private road. The route was so exposed I went five miles out of my way by dropping into the Pratt River drainage and then fording the Middle Fork Snoq. River to avoid returning to my car via the ascent route. The route up from the Pratt (our descent route) is much more user friendly. Most people traverse over from Revolution Mtn though. Our ascent route followed Carl Dreisbach's writeup for Russian Butte in his Middle Fork Guide". I wish I had seen that before I made my ill-fated exploratory attempt yesterday. What a nightmare bushwhack. https://caltopo.com/t/6H7L0UVG8B

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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks



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puzzlr
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PostSat Jul 09, 2022 10:01 pm 
Fedor - it looks like you went up staying away from the creek bed but on the way down stayed closer to it. Which was better? I've thought about exploring up this way. What caused you to turn around where you did - steepness? time? something else? Most of all, any photos? Your route up passed by the toe of a big 2009 landslide in that area.
Route on Google Earth vs 2009 landslide
Route on Google Earth vs 2009 landslide

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Fedor
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PostSun Jul 10, 2022 8:57 pm 
I didn't want to hijack filbert's thread and post a bunch of pictures, so I replied here instead: https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1234550#1234550

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